Enneagram

My first experience of Enneagram
was attending a weekend group session
with a work colleague who was doing
a counselling course, and was keen to
learn more about herself. It was a
thoroughly enjoyable, laughter-filled
session, full of surprising insights,
many of which I still remember..

The session was conducted by a Catholic Institution in Sydney, and seemed to me at the time (20+ years ago) to be entirely focused on helping individuals understand themselves and others better – the only religious content was what was relevant to the Enneagram model.

What I didn’t realise until I began researching the article for this website, was that the roots of Enneagram can be perceived as somewhat controversial. Enneagram has still been included, because as a model for understanding temperament, it is quite unlike the other models discussed (and many others besides). It has nine divisions, rather than the usual base of four, and addresses a number of additional factors in quite a unique manner.

For home educators, I consider the opportunity to investigate drives, fears, passions, etc., extremely relevant to how we interact with our children as students. I trust you to use your own discernment as you investigate in this area. While much of Enneagram’s development may be considered perhaps less ‘academic’ than some other temperament models, it has certainly found its way into mainstream use, and provides another interesting tool for those who relate to it..

Background

The idea of qualities of existence that are essential, that cannot be broken down into constituent parts, was discussed historically as far back as 400BC, by Greek philosopher and mathematician, Plato. The idea was expanded in the third century AD by Neo-Platonic philosophers, Plotinus in particular. [1][2]

From Greece and Asia Minor, these ideas moved south through Syria and Egypt, where they were further developed. Thus the philosophy behind the Enneagram contains components from mystical Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, and ancient Greek philosophy.

Image via Wikipedia

The Enneagram symbol, a circle, an inner triangle and a hexagonal periodic figure, representing unity, the law of three, and the law of seven. [3] While the symbol can be traced back as far as Pythagoras [4], it was reintroduced to the modern world by George Gurdjieff, who formed and closed various schools around the world which followed his teachings. While some considered Gurdjieff a master who brought Eastern enlightenment to the West, others considered him nothing more than a charlatan. [5]

Gerdjieff taught about the Enneagram symbol, using movement and dance, music and story-telling, employing Sufi traditions in his communications. He instructed advanced students in their ‘chief feature’, the lynch-pin of the individual’s ego structure, or the basic characteristic which defined them. Gurdjieff did not teach a system of types associated with the symbol, and he never taught anything about a system of understanding character related to the Enneagram symbol.[1].

Modern Enneagram

The modern Enneagram of Personality Types is synthesis of a number of ancient wisdom traditions, brought together by Bolivian-born philosopher, Oscar Ichazo. Ichazo drew from a number of recurrent themes in ancient traditions, and combined his knowledge with what he called the ‘Enneagon’ symbol, developing what is now known as Enneagram. [1]

Ichazo saw the Enneagram as a way of examining specifics about the structure of the human soul and particularly about the ways in which actual soul qualities of Essence become distorted, or contracted into states of ego.

While Ichazo taught a system of 108 Enneagrams, just four are focused on in current interpretations: Enneagrams of Passions, Virtues, Fixations and Holy Ideas. Holy Ideas and Virtues are considered Higher Essence Qualities, while Fixations and Passions are considered Ego Distortions. Loss in the areas of Higher Essence is what produces distortion in the lower, Ego areas.

According to Ichazo’s theory, there are nine main ways a person can lose their centre, or forget their connection with the Divine, and thus become distorted in thinking, feeling and doing. [1]

The Basics

Exploring the definitions can seem quite complicated, and the outlines provided below really are very minimalistic. There is a lot more information available for you to pursue, if you choose.

Do keep in mind, though, that not everything in the description of your basic type will apply to you all the time because you fluctuate constantly among the healthy, average, and unhealthy traits that make up your personality type.[7][1].

Complexities

The Centres

Each Enneagram has 3 Divisions, or Centres, each with it’s own dominant emotion:[7]

Types 2, 3, & 4 – these types are Feeling, with a dominant emotion of Shame

Types 5, 6, & 7 – these types are Thinking, with a dominant emotion of Anxiety

Types 8, 9 & 1 – these types are Instinctive, with a dominant emotion of Anger or Rage.

Wings

Every person is a unique mixture of their basic type, and usually one of the two types adjacent to it on the circumference of the Enneagram. The adjoining type you have tendencies towards is called your wing.[7].

Levels of Development

There is an internal structure within each personality type; a continuum of behaviors, attitudes, defenses, and motivations formed by the nine Levels of Development which makes up the personality type itself.

The Levels account for differences between people of the same type as well as how people change both for better or worse. Basically, there are three levels in each section:[7]

Each type has a known tendency towards another type, when their own type is either integrating (becoming healthier, growing) or disintegrating (becoming more unhealthy, stressing). [7]

These are readily observable on the the Enneagram, as being the lines stretching out either side of the base type position on the outer circle of the Enneagram.

The Direction of Integration or Growth is indicated by the sequence for the 1-7-5-8-2-4-1 (on the hexagon), and 9-3-6-9 (on the triangle). So, a One who is learning to integrate will become more like a healthy Seven; a Seven who is integrating will become more like a healthy Five, etc. [7]

These patterns are simply reversed to observe the sequence for the Direction of Disintegration or Stress. 1-4-2-8-5-7-1 (on the hexagon), and 9-6-3-9 (on the triangle). Thus, a One who is becoming stressed is more likely to behave like an unhealthy Four; a Four who is becoming stressed will likely behave like an unhealthy Two, etc. [7].

Overview

The information available on each type is quite complex, so these overviews are indeed brief. For more information, visit the Enneagram Institute website, specifically the pages on the Traditional Enneagram (and scroll down to the overviews), and Type Descriptions (and follow the hyperlinked type-names to comprehensive pages of description). [1][7][8].

“Love is the only way to grasp another
human being in the innermost core of
his personality. No one can become fully
aware of the very essence of another
human being unless he loves him.
By his love he is enabled to see the
essential traits and features.”~ Viktor Frankl
.

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